Pregnant women in Italy’s northern region of Lombardy will now have real “choice” when it comes to their unborn children. The President of the regional government, Robert Formigoni, announced last month that “no women will abort in Lombardy because of economic difficulties.” Pregnant women who choose not to abort their child will be given assistance for the first 18 months of the child’s life—monthly installments that add up to U.S. $5500 per year.
According to Lombardy’s Family Commissioner, Julius Boscagli, Italy’s difficult economic conditions and social instability are pushing more women into abortions. In addition, Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world ranking 206th out of 223 countries. With a total fertility rate of 1.32, Italy will lose more than one-third of its population with each successive generation.
According to feminist groups and pro-abortion organizations, this payment to women is nothing short of demagoguery. Rather than cheering that pregnant women have another “choice,” the pro-choice advocates sneer at this effort saying it is a conservative propaganda ploy–it is men trying to control women, applying pressure to not abort. Commissioner Boscagli scoffs at this notion saying, “Our measure was born of experience and the results obtained for those who work in the field for decades closely with women’s problems.”
The region of Lombardy deserves credit for recognizing what many municipalities and countries do not—bearing and rearing the next generation is a societal imperative and they are willing to spend money to assist mothers. United Families would prefer that each child would have a stable, married mother and father that could provide for their children’s needs, but taxpayer funding is preferred over seeing an unborn child fall to an abortionist’s knife.
Commissioner Boscagli sums it up: “”What we are doing in Lombardy, the primary objective [is] to minimize the tragedy of abortion.”